A lot of cities claim to be great sporting cities but there has to be a greatest doesn't there? There aren't a lot of contenders. New York,Boston,Chicago and L.A. in the States maybe London and Rio although they are probably too dominated by soccer (they each have like nine professional teams) but the one that sticks out above the rest is Melbourne. Actually, the more I think about it it's not even close. Let's put New York a far second but here are the facts that stick Melbourne out from the rest.
-The AFL (Aussie Rules) is a Victorian thing and Melbourne is the heart and soul of the AFL. They have teams in New South Wales,Queensland and Western Australia but that is due to expansion. Melbourne is the epicentre. In any one week 50,000+ fans are selling out any of several stadiums that dot the the city. You cannot discount how big this is for one city as far as dominance of one sport in one town.
-The MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground or the "G") is one of the 7 wonders of the sporting world. It also hosts the Boxing Day Tests which draws a 100,000+ for each of the five days.
- Melbourne hosts the Australian Open at the Rod Laver Arena. I've always wondered how how the Australian Open became a major. It seems, to me, to stick out. Obviously, Wimbledon is an easy number 1 followed by the US Open and Roland Garros needs to be there for the change of surface but why then Australia? It's in a crappy time zone for it's major market, it doesn't offer any particular point of difference besides maybe the heat, but these days they have covered stadiums and late start times.
- Melbourne Cup. They call it the race that stops the nation but in reality it stops two nations because New Zealand also holds it high regard. The only comparison would be the Kentucky Derby and I would put them on even standing as far as prestige and relevance but just different hemispheres.
- Formula One comes here every year. It is slowly losing relevance through poor management but is still surviving on reputation. Melbourne usually kicks off the yearly schedule.
- Random facts.Melbourne has hosted an Olympic Games and a Commonwealth Games. Did you know that up until the LA Dodgers hosted the Boston Red Sox in an exhibition came recently that the largest attendance record for a baseball game was in Melbourne in 1956! 114,000+. That might be a bit disheartening to Americans but did you also know that the largest haka was also in Melbourne (2200 people! the old record was 800).
- The body of evidence is just too great. The scope of the fanship means to me that Melburnians are really the greatest sport fans in the world. Really, to be honest, I think you could tell people in Melbourne "Hey, you going to the game?" and you wouldn't even need to tell them what sport it was they would just show up. It sounds like my kind of town.
Point of Disclosure- I've never been to Melbourne but to be honest it would be number 1 of cities to visit that I haven't been to yet. Besides sports it really does have a lot to offer. Before the Aussies get too full of themselves though they shouldn't forget this.
No comments:
Post a Comment